Deadly Legends
by blacksouledbutterfly
Summary: Someone is watching her. Someone is stalking. The grounds are bathed in blood. And someone wants her dead. Hermione has to figure out how to keep herself alive....if that's even possible.
1. Welcome To The HSWW

A/N: This is based on the movie Urban Legend. Seen it? Great, than you get the idea. Haven't? Well, to put it simply it's about a killer who kills his victims using urban legends as a basis i.e. the kidney heist and various others.

This story will have 2 different kinds of legends: urban legends which will be referred to as Muggle Legends through out and Wizarding Legends which as basically urban legends from the wizarding world.

This story is entirely AU and does not contain HBP in any way or form, so no spoilers are within. Got that? Okay, here we go, one more thing.

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, or the theme to Urban Legend. I merely have taken the basic idea of the story, twisted its characters as well as the characters of Harry Potter and thrown them into my own little story.

* * *

For the hundredth time that night Melody McIntire let out a sigh of annoyance. She glanced at the clock: **_10:20_**. Her parents wouldn't be home for at least another hour and she was stuck watching her brother and sister. Shifting in her spot on the couch the turned her attention back to the sound of the voice coming from her radio.

_"This is Ginny Weasley coming to you from HSWW, the newly instated voice of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, ready to start you off on a brand new year. For those of you tuneing in for the first time to this lovely new WWN station, through various charms and spells we have enabled you, the listener to call in to us and tell us your secrets, problem, worries, and maybe even request a song._

_"Please welcome our next contact, Fiona Veslo, Ravenclaw Second Year. What brings you to our station tonight Fiona?"_

_"Um...well, you see, my sister, Nancy, she's a sixth year. In Ravenclaw like me."_

_"And that's a problem?"_

_"Well, no, but...um, you see. She and I haven't been getting along well lately. Well, we haven't been getting along at all and after our last fight I did something terrible."_

_"What did you do, Fiona?"_

_"I changed her contraceptive spells for a mixture of pumpkin juice and butterbeer."_

_"What?"_

_"Pumpkin juice and butterbeer. She never noticed the difference because they taste exactly the same. But, well, now she's pregnant and what am I supposed to do?"_

_"Well, Fiona, first of all, did you know that falsifying the label on a spell such as a contraceptive spell is against Ministry laws?"_

_"Really?"_

_"Really. Now, as for your sister, I would be prepared to be hexed to China and back because when she finds out what you did, she's going to go mental on you. Now, for all you listeners out there, here's a lovely song from one of our favorite bands, the Weird Sisters."_

As the music began to float across the room, Melody closed her eyes. Just two more days and she would be back at Hogwarts, and away from her family. It wasn't to say that she hated her family. Far from it. She enjoyed her family, and even enjoyed being in the muggle world, but hated being stuck looking after her sisters. Furthermore, she missed Hogwarts. Her sixth year was upon her and she had been at school for so long that being away from it seemed almost unnatural.

The phone rang, shaking Melody out of her thoughts. She reached over, feeling around for the phone. Her hand made contact with it, knocking it off of the coffee table. "Shit." Reaching down she picked up the receiver and placed it to her ear. "Hello?"

At first she heard nothing, only heavy breathing, and then the distinct sound of laughter.

"Hello? Who is this?"

"Are you alone in the house?"

Melody stopped, holding her breath. _Crap, its probably Oliver from down the street._ She let out her breath slowly, clearing her throat. "Very funny. I'm hanging up now."

"Have you checked the children?"

"Look, very fucking funny. I'm hanging up now."

Melody placed the phone back in its cradle, shaking her head. "Stupid jerk."

No sooner had Melody closed her eyes to relax did she hear the phone ring again. Letting out a sigh of frustration she grabbed the phone and pressed it back against her ear. "Hello?"

"Have you checked the children?"

"Oliver, this is not funny! I'm hanging up. Don't call me again."

She slammed the phone back into place. _What is wrong with people today?_ she wondered._ People have such problems. And that Oliver! What is his problem? What, I refuse to date him so he starts harassing me? There is something terribly and horribly wrong with that scenario._

The phone rang once more, the sound ringing throughout the room. She bit her lip, contemplating whether of not she should answer it or not. _It could be Mum and Dad_, she reasoned. _And if I don't answer she is going to go completely and utterly mental._

After a moment more of hesitation she reached over with a shaking hand and answered the phone. "Hello?"

"Melody, honey? It's Mummy. Are you okay?"

Melody let out a deep breath. "Oh, Mum, I was just...I was surprised to hear from you so soon."

"Are you okay? Are your sisters okay?"

"We're fine, Mum. Are you going to be gone much longer?"

"Only another hour. Why? Melody, is something wrong?"

"No, Mum. No, nothing's wrong." She was never good at lying to her mother. Actually, in truth, lying to her mother left a nasty taste in her mouth, but if she told her mother what was going on it would only worry her. If her mother thought something wrong she would cut the night out short, and Melody's parents so rarely got to go out. Having three daughters kept them busy most of the day, so going out together, just the two of them, was a rarity. She was not about to ruin that for them. "I'm just tired, that's all."

"Okay. Melody, check on Sarah for me, will you? You know how hard it is for her to fall asleep."

"Sure Mum."

Her mother sighed into the phone. "Okay darling. We'll be home soon. Try to get some sleep, okay?"

"Okay Mum. Bye."

"Bye honey."

Melody hung up the phone, sliding her legs off of the couch. Her gaze flickered to the floor above her. "If you two aren't asleep when I come up there, you're both going to die! I hope you know that!"

As she made her way up the stairs she thought about what a pain it was to have to take care of her sisters. They were little brats most of the time. Besides, the only reason Sarah had trouble sleeping at night it that while on summer holiday she had a habit of sleeping all day. Why should she bother worrying about her?

She made her way down the hall, reached inside her sisters's room and flicked the light switch, but the lights didn't turn on. Melody frowned, trying the light switch again. "Damn electricity." She slid her feet across the floor and bent over Sarah's bed. "Are you asleep you bloody brat?" She reached down and shook her sister. "Hello!" Her hand hit something moist and sticky. "Sarah?" Still her sister did not respond.

Melody lifted up her hand and in the moonlight something dark stood out against her hand. Shaking her head silently she backed up, heading to the door.

She heard footsteps behind her.

She turned and went to scream, but didn't get the chance to. The next sound that rang through the house was the sound of an axe hitting the door frame, and the sound of Melody's head rolling across the floor.

Downstairs Ginny's voice could be heard over the WWN.

_Our next contact is Alexa Fitzgerald, Hufflepuff second year. Tell us what's on your mind Alexa..._


	2. Dread

Something was wrong. She could tell as soon as she sat down that there was something foul on the air. What it was she couldn't put her finger on, but she knew, with absolute certainty that there was something strange. The teachers had begun acting weird nearly the moment that school had restarted, their eyes lingering over the students at all times. It was like they were on high guard, trying with all of their might to shield the students from the horrors outside. Glancing around it seemed that she was the only one in the little group that noticed something was wrong. Was it that she was the only one that had been observant enough to notice? Or was there really nothing going on?

Ginny's eyes jumped to her, concern etching across her face. Was it that obvious she was worried about something? Could they all see it but not even begin to understand what it was that was bothering her? That was entirely possible, she supposed, but idea was rather unnerving. After all, if she seemed worried when the others saw nothing to be worried about it wasn't as though they would think it normal. Quite the opposite: she was sure they'd think she was going absolutely mental.

Curling her legs closer to her body she gave Ginny the best smile she could muster up, trying to reassure the younger girl that everything was perfectly fine. What was there not to be fine about? It was a lovely day and she was sitting on the grass with her friends. Surely that meant that there was nothing to worry about. Didn't it?

Then why couldn't she shake this feeling in the pit of her stomach like something was terribly wrong? Even while Ginny tried to engage all of them in a conversation about the radio show she did for Hogwarts, Hermione Granger couldn't find herself able to concentrate on the other girl's words. She heard them coming out but they all seemed a jumble, a running mess inside of her head that she couldn't seem to clarify.

Once she found she could no longer handle the jumble of words coursing through her head she politely excused herself finding some excuse that she knew they would believe- she had to start reading for a class- and gathered her things. She was half way across the lawn, half way to the main entrance before the jumble started to die and she found herself able to think a little bit more clearly. But even without the jumble she couldn't shake the sense of dread that had taken location deep in the pit of her stomach.

"Tired of listening to their drivel already, Granger?"

Her entire body went rigid mid-step, her blood running cold. No, this wasn't helping her sense of dread any. She turned, as slowly as she could, to meet the cool gray eyes of the student that had been a thorn in her and her friend's sides since their first year. Draco Malfoy gazed back at her impassively. _He's just trying to get a rise out of me,_ she thought. She wasn't about to give him that satisfaction. Nor was her mind in any state to handle any banter between them. She had to get inside and to quiet to give herself some time to think. "Since when do you care what I do, Malfoy?"

"I don't," he responded coolly. "Just rather odd of you to leave your friends like that. I thought you were all attached at the hips. Bloody annoying really."

"I'm not in the mood for this, Malfoy." She turned then to walk away from him, craving silence and time to think. She had to clear her head, was desperate to do so.

"You knew that muggle girl Melody, right?"

"Melody?" She turned back to him, her interest suddenly heightened. "Melody McIntire?"

"That's the one, yes."

"Yes, I know her." Melody was a year behind her. Last year she had taken it upon herself to help the girl with a paper for one of her classes when she saw her struggling in the library. Unlike the times when she would help Ron with his work she was actually only helping Melody instead of doing the work. It was a refreshing change.

"You mean you _knew_ her," he corrected. "Past tense."

"What are you talking about, Malfoy?"

"You didn't notice she wasn't here, Granger?"

In all honesty she hadn't. She wasn't in the habit of taking a roll call of everyone in the entire school and only two days into the school year she didn't think it was unusual to have not seen the people she knew. The building was rather large, after all, and seeing as she didn't take any classes with her there would have been no reason to notice her absence. "Of course I didn't. I don't make it a habit of stalking people or ensuring their presence. Why are you asking about Melody?"

"She's dead."

Ice settled deep within her gut. Melody was dead? Was that the sense of dread she had been feeling? Was that why the professors were looking at all of them so intently? Were they worried about their safety? Or perhaps worried some of the students would notice Melody's absence and be unable to understand why she was no longer there. "What do you mean?"

"Just like I said, Granger. The stupid mudblood is dead."

She wanted to curse him for using that word, but she found herself unable to comprehend what he was saying. "How do you even know that?"

"Heard the professors talking." He crossed his arms over his chest looking both arrogant and aristocratic at the same time. "Sometimes they don't know how to be all that discrete."

"What happened to her?"

"Killed, they said. In her home. With an axe. Stupid muggles, killing each other in such a bloody way. Magic is so much more efficient- no blood, no mess, just death."

"Death is never clean, Malfoy," she snapped. She felt the ice in her stomach grow. Someone had murdered Melody. Someone had killed her. With an axe no less. A painful death, she reasoned. A painful and scary death. "Do you know what happened?"

"I know what they said happened."

"Well? What did they say?"

"Not much, Granger. Just the girl and her sisters were killed. Mudblood was supposed to be watching them while her parents were out and they all wound up dead. Bloody mess for her parents to find, don't you agree?"

"All three of them are dead?" Melody had mentioned her sisters to Hermione, briefly. Both younger than her, both a bloody pain, but both loved very much by their older sister. She supposed that younger siblings were always a nuisance to their older siblings but she knew with absolute certainty that Melody would never wish any harm to come to them.

"I just said that, Granger. Supposedly she got strange messages on the….I think they call it a phone or something. She got a bunch of messages on it and then they were all dead. Snape says according to the girl's mother all of the messages came from the house itself. How in the bloody hell that's even possible is beyond me."

"A second line." But she was saying it to herself, not to him, and when his blonde brow arched she didn't even bother trying to clarify. She wasn't in the mood for a muggle studies lesson.

"Well, your little friend died after her sisters. Or so they said. Not that it matters. Dead is dead, isn't it?"

Strange calls. That sounded so bloody familiar to her that she couldn't help but forget to breathe for a moment. Where had she heard that before? "Why are you telling me this, Malfoy?"

"Wanted to see the look on your face. Bloody worth it, too. You look like you swallowed a fly."

"This isn't funny, Malfoy."

"To you maybe." He had that insufferable smirk plastered on his face.

A legend, she realized. A legend that muggle children told each other to scare themselves and others. A legend about a girl babysitting and getting menacing phone calls from some stranger. A girl who calls the police only to find out that the calls are coming from inside the house. A girl stalked by a man just upstairs, upstairs where the children she was watching were sleeping. And even if the details weren't exact she knew that Melody's death- if Malfoy was right- was a pretty close mirror to that legend. She could almost imagine the axe that killed Melody, the hands that gripped it becoming slick with blood. Would their grip have slipped? Would they have scratches on their palms from the wood? Or would their grip have remained firm the entire time?

But who would take a legend and make it a reality? Could it have been just a coincidence that she circumstances were so similar? Or was the killer no stranger at all but a friend? Was the person who ended Melody's life a friend of hers that had gone mad? Or a boy who wanted her love and didn't receive it? And if this had been about love, why kill her sisters as well? Why ruin so many lives? Then again, she figured, murder was rarely sane or logical and never really considerate of others. Murder was cold. And murder was unforgiving.

"Did you _actually_ swallow a bug, Granger?"

"No." Her voice came out sharp, both annoyed and scared. "You're sure you heard them right?"

"I _am_ capable of listening to people, Granger, despite what you may think."

"Damn." Poor Melody. Poor, poor Melody.

She took a deep breath, gathering her thoughts. That cold feeling was explained, she thought. "Well, you delivered your little message, Malfoy. You had your fun."

"Indeed."

She turned away from him then, her pace much quicker than before as she made her way towards the main entrance. She needed to get inside, needed to get away. She had to think and she couldn't do that there. She couldn't stop, _wouldn't_ stop until she was alone with her thoughts.

A student at Hogwarts had been murdered. And it hadn't been by magic- nor was it by Death Eaters she was sure. They would never resort to using such a muggle tactic to kill someone. They would merely cast a spell on them and be done with it. No, this wasn't the work of Death Eaters and it was that thought that terrified her.

As she reached the doorway she felt eyes on her. She turned quickly, expecting to see Malfoy's smirking face, but Malfoy was long gone, already half way over to where his pathetic group of friends sat. But she could still feel it, someone's eyes on her. Intent, studying.

Watching her from the shadows.


	3. A Disturbing Dream

It was weird, to know someone who was dead. Not so much someone who had died, actually, but someone who had been murdered in such a brutal fashion and while she couldn't say she was exceedingly close to Melody she could say she was definitely a good person, that she didn't deserve to have something like that happen to her. But then again she doesn't suppose that most people deserve to be hacked apart by an axe. Even the most cruel and horrible of people deserve a much less painful death than that. It's the most humane thing, after all. But whoever had killed Melody obviously didn't care much about humane. They were obviously more interested in pain and fear and they had achieved both of those with Melody's death.

The faculty wasn't talking about it, not yet. Even as the day went on and they would talk quietly amongst themselves there was no sign that they were going to tell the students anytime soon that one of their schoolmates had been killed in their home. So by the time everyone had turned in for the night she was one of the few people who knew. Her and Malfoy and whoever else he had decided to tell that little bit of information to.

Sleep didn't come easy but when it finally came it was restless. It didn't take long at all for her heart to start to race, for her dream world to turn into one that was a complete and total nightmare.

She had no idea where she ended up in her dream but wherever it was she was positive she was underground. The walls were cold and damp and smelled musty; somewhere she could hear water dripping and she was alone, in a room with no doors and lighting that flickered on and off so frequently it was nearly enough to cause a headache. She stumbled backwards and pressed her hands against the stonewall to brace herself, finding the surface cold and wet and when she brought her hands back in front of her and lifted them up to look at her palms they were slicked with thick, wet blood, extremely bright when the lights flickered on.

Somewhere in the distance she heard someone scream and she could feel her pulse beating in her tongue, making it feel heavy in her mouth. Wiping her hands on her jeans she took a deep breath, swallowing against the thick feeling in her throat and took off running down the hall, her footsteps sounding as loud as her heart is in her ears. The screaming came again, louder this time and more desperate and she ran faster, her arms scraping against the walls as she took sharp turns, her skin scrapping off and splitting, blood starting to run down her arms, warm and thick.

Behind her she could hear footsteps that didn't belong to her. they starts out slow and relaxed and then became hurried, following after her so she tried to run faster, tried to get herself to move, to find an exit even though she couldn't move any faster than she was. She was already at maximum speed, her lungs were already burning with the effort and her legs were tired but no matter how many corners she turned she couldn't seem to find an exit, couldn't even see a spot that was any different than the one she had encountered before. It was like she was in a maze that she just couldn't possibly get out of.

The footsteps started to get closer and her heartbeat sped up, nearly deafening her to all else. And that's when she knew without a doubt that she wasn't going to get out of there, that she was going to end up being the one screaming but it didn't make her stop running. It didn't even slow her down. She just kept moving until she felt a sharp instant pain in her back. It made her stumble and gasp and nearly fall forward, made thick and warm blood flow down her back. The pain came again, sharper as the blade cut heragain, making her body burn and tingle, making the air almost impossible to fill her lungs.

She started to fall forward and then an arm wrapped around her waist and then she was pulled back against a body, her vision blurring and darkening and her head spinning, her legs feeling like jelly though her back wasn't hurting anymore like her body had decided it no longer wanted to process pain and it was a blessing, the last blessing she knew she would ever have.

In the flickering light a blade entered her vision, part of it silvery and glinting in the light, the rest of it coated in fresh, blood- _her_ blood. It _should_ make her stomach churn, it _should_ make her feel like her world is spinning and like she's going to vomit but she's so empty right now that she can't feel anything about it. It doesn't get to her at all.

She feels breath warm and moist against her ear as her eyes start to flutter shut, her breath becoming shallow and week. "Don't you know?" the voice asks, a dark and gravely voice that she feels like she should recognize even though she can't make the connection right now. "You should _always_ believe what you hear." It was the last thing she would hear.

She awoke with a start, sitting up in her bed, panting like she couldn't catch her breath and had reached up to press a palm against her throat to check to see if it really _was_ all a dream and found her check unmarred and blood free. But her heart was beating so rapidly that she felt like it was going to explode while everyone slept peacefully around her. And she knew, just knew that she wasn't going to be able to get anymore sleep that night so she didn't even bother to try.

Slipping out of her bed she put her shoes on and pulled on her coat over her bedclothes and slowly made her way down the stairs of the girl's dormitory and out into the empty common room, taking a seat in one of the chairs, curling her legs up towards her chest, wrapping her arms around her knees as she sits there, trying to get her mind to calm down again even though it keeps on racing. The voice that had been in her head kept dancing around and she tried to think about where she remembered it from but found herself unable to. The only thing that she knew was that she recognized the voice from _somewhere_, that something about it had seemed familiar to her though she couldn't quite place where she had heard it.

But soon the common room started to feel suffocating and she had to get out of there so she climbed out of the chair and made her way out of the entrance, letting the portrait slide back into place and then made her way down the hall even as she could hear the Fat Lady waking up and mumbling about how kids weren't respecting curfews and how it would serve them right if they got into trouble but she doesn't let it bother her. She just knows that she has to get out of there, to go and get some air though she had no idea where she was really going.

In no time, however, she ended up outside of the school, just outside of the door and found the breeze to be a lot cooler than she expected so she wrapped her arms around herself and waited for something or for nothing- waited until the dream faded from her mind and it all made sense though she wasn't sure if it ever would.

-

She was pretty quiet during breakfast though no one seemed to notice. She replied when asked a question, smiled at the appropriate times but mostly didn't think of anything specific beyond the dream and didn't start any of the conversations because she didn't want to bring up the dream, didn't want to talk about it. she was pretty much sleepwalking throughout the day, going through the motions during class and then separating from her friends and making her way across the school grounds and finding a place to sit, pressing her back against a tree and sitting so she could look out at the Great Lake.

It didn't take all that long for someone else to find her, for her to feel the presence of another person by her and she didn't even have to hear their voice to know who it was because only one person could enjoy seeing her acting like a proverbial zombie; only one person would want to rub it in her face.

"Brain stop, Granger?" came Malfoy's voice. "Don't know what to do with yourself? Too busy crying over that dead girl?"

"I'm not crying," she replied tonelessly, her gaze never leaving the lake. "Just because I'm not excited that she's dead doesn't mean that I'm crying. I know you must be quite pleased to see a muggle born dead but I can assure you, Malfoy, that not everyone shares that feeling."

"The smart ones do."

"That's your opinion then, isn't it? I doubt that intelligence has anything to do with it."

"Well, if you're not crying over that mudblood then why are you sitting out here without your pathetic little friends just looking out at the bloody lake? You going mental or something?"

"Wouldn't you just _love_ that?" she questioned, turning her head slightly to look at him out of the corner of her eyes from under her hair. "You'd bloody _love_ if I went mental and had to be sent away, wouldn't you? Would be one less muggle born in the school for you to have to share oxygen with, wouldn't it? I do believe you would throw a bloody party if I were to go mental and be sent away."

The edge of his mouth curled up slightly, starting to turn into that insufferable smirk of his. "Can't say I wouldn't enjoy being rid of you," he conceded, shrugging his shoulders a bit, his gray eyes almost sparkling at the sheer idea of it.

"You're horrid."

"And your insults are rather pathetic."

"I don't care about your opinion, Malfoy."

"Oh, come off it, Granger. You care what _everyone_ thinks about you. If the whole world doesn't like you, doesn't respect you then you get quite bothered by it. You can't fool yourself into thinking otherwise so you definitely can't fool _me_."

She watched him quietly for several moments, just looking at him from under her hair and then pressed her hands against the ground beneath her and pushed herself up and off of the ground, rubbing her hands over the back of her skirt once she's standing so she can smooth down the fabric and get rid of any stray blades of grass.

"Bugger off, Malfoy," she told him evenly, her tone not nearly as annoyed as she was feeling despite it swirling around inside of her in an almost suffocating way. She just wasn't about to let him get that type of satisfaction, wasn't about to let him know how much he was getting to her. If she did that then he won and she wasn't about to let him win. So she kept her voice even, kept her expression empty and turned away from him, making her way slowly back towards the school and towards the people she actually could stand.

Malfoy's laughter followed her as she left.


End file.
